The Savage
by David Almond
"There was a wild kid living in Burgess Woods. He had no famly and he had no pals and he didn't know where he come from and he culdn't talk and he lived on beries and roots and rabbits and stuff like old pies that he pinched from the bins at the back of Greenacres Rest Home. He lived in a cave under the rooined chapel. His wepons were old kitchen nives and forks and an ax that he nicked from Franky Finnigin's allotment. If anybody ever seen him he chased them and cort them and killed them and ate them and chucked their bones down an aynshent pit shaft. He was a savage. He was truly wild."
After his father died, Blue Baker was devastated. His father was one of his best friends. HIs school counselor, Mrs. Molloy, would always take him out of his school lessons to let him write down his feelings and thoughts about the occurrence of his fathers death. At the time she had told him that she wanted him to explore his grief and "start to move forward." He tried it for a while, but to him it seemed a bit stupid, and it had also made him feel worse. So one day, Blue ripped up his thoughts about the whole situation and got a new notebook. This was the start of The Savage.
Blue Baker couldn't stop writing the story once he started, and to him, it actually helped him a bit. After all, he had never been one for stories. He didn't like the whole "once-upon-a-time" and "happily-ever-after" storyline. He liked adventures. Ones with blood and guts and wildness. And that's what he wrote.
He based his story off of the small town he lived in, Saltwell. And every small town has the "towns bully", as most would like to call it. Saltwell's bully was Hopper, who would be making an appearance in The Savage.
Hopper always picked on Blue, no one knew why, but he did. Blue's dad always told him it was because Hopper was jealous. On one certain day, Hopper had made a nasty comment to Blue about his dad, it had upset Blue very much.